MIYERSITT  8F  ILLIRIfS  LIBRARY 


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NOV  2 0 19  i k p /p 

eport  of  the  Secretary 

of  the 

War  Work  Council 

Delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting 
June  18,  1918 


National  Board  of  the 

Young  Womens  Christian  Associations 
600  Lexington  Ave.,  New  York 


/VffoTS 


IMYERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  LliRARY' 


YB^t  v~ 

‘ JQ/8  NOV  2 0 18 n 

PREFACE 

At  the  time  this  country  faced  the  possibility  of  war,  the 
National  Board  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associations 
was  confronted  with  a great  responsibility  for  helping  to 
safeguard  the  moral  condition  of  women  and  girls  as  affected 
by  war  conditions. 

The  organization  which  in  times  of  peace  and  under  ordi- 
nary circumstances  is  able  to  carry  out  a program  is  naturally 
the  one  to  which  the  community  may  turn  in  time  of 
emergency.  The  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  has 
the  machinery,  the  equipment  and  the  motive  to  make  this 
work  effective. 

Request  came  from  the  United  States  War  Department 
Commission  on  Training  Camp  Activities  and  from  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  for  women  workers  to  undertake 
work  among  girls  in  communities  adjacent  to  army  and  navy 
training  camps. 

The  War  Work  Council  was  organized  June  sixth  and 
seventh,  nineteen  hundred  seventeen,  with  a membership  of 
one  hundred  women  chosen  from  the  Association  member- 
ship and  from  prominent  leaders  in  many  states  who  had  not 
hitherto  been  associated  with  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 

The  function  of  the  War  Work  Council  is  to  act  as  a 
committee  of  the  National  Board  responsible  for  using  the 
resources  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  in 
helping  meet  the  special  needs  of  girls  and  young  women  of 
all  countries  affected  by  the  war. 


JUNIOR  WAR  WORK  COUNCIL  AND  GIRLS'  WORK. 

The  Junior  War  Work  Council  will  hold  its  own  conference 
on  June  nineteenth.  This  Council  is  organized  as  a channel 
to  furnish  younger  leadership,  speakers  for  the  Speakers' 
Bureau  in  Fields  through  training  courses,  and  in  some  places 
by  means  of  helping  to  gather  vocational  exhibits. 

Two  conferences  will  be  held  on  the  western  coast,  the 
San  Francisco  conference  in  July  is  a two  day  session. 

The  program  decided  upon  for  the  nineteenth,  to  be  carried 
out  by  the  Junior  War  Work  Council,  will  include  a Recrea- 
tional Program,  particularly  pageantry  such  as  Miss  Hazel 
MacKaye  is  planning. 

The  Patriotic  League  is  expanding  rapidly,  the  members 
now  number  four  hundred  and  ten  thousand,  nearly  one 
half  million.  It  is  a big  unifying  measure  for  the  young  girls 
in  our  land.  It  unifies  various  lines  of  girls'  work  promoted 
by  communities  in  four  hundred  and  twenty-one  cities  and 
towns,  and  one  hundred  and  forty-five  student  centers. 


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The  head  of  the  Physical  Education  Department  at  the 
University  of  Wisconsin  said:  “We  never  promoted  any  plan 
for  girls*  work  that  succeeded  as  does  this  Patriotic  League. 
It  must  have  been  a genius  who  thought  of  it.” 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  amount  of  Service  Work 
accomplished  by  the  League.  This  includes  work  for  the 
Red  Cross,  the  Navy  League,  the  Belgian  Relief  and  French 
Orphans.  For  example,  a unit  of  twenty-five  girls  made 
twenty-seven  sweaters  and  ten  baby  kits. 

The  Patriotic  League  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  helped  investi- 
gate living  places  for  ten  thousand  girls  for  the  Rooming 
Directory. 

Because  the  membership  is  largely  of  younger  girls,  three 
extra  headquarters  traveling  secretaries,  and  five  field  staff 
secretaries,  one  secretary  among  colored  girls  and  one 
special  worker  for  young  girls  in  the  Foreign-Born  Division 
are  to  be  put  on. 

The  demand  for  trained  leaders  for  the  “teen”  age  will  be 
met  by  the  Geneva  Conference  June  twenty-first.  The  applica- 
tions already  number  two  hundred  and  fifty.  Since  we  can 
accommodate  only  sixty,  we  are  arranging  to  meet  the  need 
otherwise. 

The  program  of  girls*  work  must  be  adjusted  to  each 
different  community.  It  falls  into  the  following  general 
divisions: 

1.  Recreation  planned  for  girls,  and  also  for  girls  and  men. 
The  work  of  Miss  Geister  in  Charleston,  S.  C.  and  the  work  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  illustrates  what  can  be  accomplished. 

2.  Group  work  needing  careful  leadership  in  less  formal 
recreation  and  games.  It  includes  organized  play,  dramatic 
work  and  story  telling. 

3.  Constructive  organized  club  work.  This  develops  definite 
responsibility  and  initiative  through  Girl  Scout  Work  and 
through  Hostess  Clubs.  This  is  especially  important  near 
camps.  Three  kinds  of  clubs  are  planned  for  different  ages. 
The  “Rainbow**  Clubs  are  for  grade  and  junior  high  school 
girls;  “Be  Square”  Clubs  for  young  employed  girls; 
“Friendship”  Clubs  are  for  high  school  girls. 

4.  Pressure  upon  girls  to  leave  school  for  work,  necessi- 
tates training  and  education.  The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  aids  in 
Vocational  Guidance  Program.  Pamphlets  on  this  subject  are 
available. 

5.  All  these  groups  are  correlated  and  unified  through  the 
Patriotic  League  in  the  community. 


4 


INDUSTRIAL  WAR  WORK. 

Women  are  awake  to  the  fact  that  we  must  follow  two 
armies — an  army  of  men  and  an  army  of  women.  Men  some- 
times forget  the  “woman’s  army”  in  war  work  is  now  two 
million  strong. 

The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  must  develop  regular  work  so  as  to  give 
adequate  support  to  this  Industrial  War  Work.  Two  forms  of 
leadership  are  needed. 

1.  Leadership  for  developing  morale  among  the  women 
workers. 

2.  Leadership  for  social  protective  movements. 

Public  opinon  must  be  molded  to  promote — 

1.  Eight-hour  day. 

2.  One  day’s  rest  in  seven. 

3.  Minimum  wage. 

4.  Equal  pay  for  equal  work. 

5.  Health  and  moral  hazard  to  workers. 

6.  Abolition  of  night  work  for  women. 

7.  Place  of  women  on  labor’s  program. 

8.  Collective  bargaining  as  expressed  in  Trade  Unionism. 

9.  Our  social  responsibility  for  education  and  legislation. 

Because  the  Government  has  production  in  the  forefront,  no 
appropriation  has  been  made  for  the  program  to  stabilize 
newer  working  conditions,  and  the  Government  has  turned 
to  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  to  co-operate  in  putting  on  our  program, 
which  includes  ‘‘Industrial  War  Service  Centers”  similar  to 
Hostess  Houses  in  the  camps.  The  activities  of  these  centers 
will  include  information  desks,  directories,  employment 
bureaus,  rest  rooms,  recreation  centers,  cafeterias  and  girls’ 
activities,  military  drills  in  companies,  patriotic  service 
activities,  standardized  community  recreation,  social  morality 
lectures  and  rest  period  recreation.  All  this  is  war  service 
work. 

Requests  by  the  Government  or  from  the  managers  of 
plants  doing  government  work  have  come  from  twenty-five 
centers  representing  one  hundred  thousand  women.  Yet  this 
is  only  one-third  of  the  present  “war  order”  munition  in- 
dustries. 

Co-operation  with  the  Employer.  Pressed  by  the  necessity 
for  maximum  production,  the  problems  growing  out  of  the 
employment  of  women,  (such  as  housing,  feeding,  and  recrea- 
tion) are  grave,  for  they  largely  determine  the  character  of 
work  done  and  the  labor  turned  out. 

Employer.  We  can  help  the  employer:  first,  through  our 
community  program;  and  second,  through  our  Bureau  for 
Industrial  Supervision ” and  the  training  of  women  for  such 
supervisory  positions. 

This  training  will  be  given  at  Bryn  Mawr  College  by  Dr. 
Susan  Kingsbury  of  the  Department  of  Social  Economy  in 
our  eight  months’  course  for  industrial  supervisors — welfare 
and  employment  managers . The  Young  Women’s  Christian 

5 


Association,  through  its  War  Work  Council  is  helping  to 
finance  this  course.  Following  the  decision  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
Council  to  co-operate  with  Bryn  Mawr,  the  following  tele- 
gram was  received: 

May  14,  1918. 

Miss  Florence  Simms, 

Secretary  of  Industrial  Work, 

Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  New  York. 

Have  just  had  opportunity  of  learning  from  Dr.  Kings- 
bury proposed  war  emergency  industrial  courses  in  Bryn 
Mawr.  I desire  to  say  plan  which  is  contemplated  is  most 
essential  to  provide  trained  workers  if  the  industrial  activities 
of  war  days  and  beyond  are  to  be  wisely  guided.  If  the  work 
is  undertaken  it  will  be  carried  on  in  fullest  co-operation  with 
the  Labor  Administration  “O.  K.”  and  to  meet  some  of  its 
needs. 

FELIX  FRANKFURTER 

Assistant  to  Secretary  of  War. 


The  Training  of  Workers.  Leadership  with  the  right  know- 
ledge of  industrial  problems  as  well  as  of  the  girl  herself 
plus  training  and  ability  to  promote  “our  program''  must 
be  provided. 

Training  courses  include  both  lecture  work  and  practical 
experience  and  are  being  conducted  in  four  local  Associations. 
Special  courses  will  be  given  at  four  industrial  councils,  and 
a six  months'  course,  beginning  July  fifth,  will  be  held  at 
the  National  Training  School  this  summer. 

The  Survey  of  Munition  Plant  Centers.  Investigation  of 
each  plant  and  community  will  be  made  as  soon  as  possible 
after  the  request  for  work  has  been  received. 

This  Survey  will  include  the  questions  of  housing,  employ- 
ment, day  and  night  shifts,  community  recreation,  transporta- 
tion and  all  other  phases  that  affect  the  life  of  the  girls. 


COLORED  GIRLS'  WORK. 

To  protect  the  colored  girl  in  war  time  and  help  the  women 
of  the  men  in  service  is  a task  of  the  Department  of  Work 
Among  Colored  Women.  We  encourage  them  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  industrial  positions  now  open  to  them.  Stress 
is  laid  upon  social  morality  talks  and  upon  the  equal  oppor- 
tunities now  offered  to  colored  girls  which  were  never  open 
before.  The  mutual  understanding  between  white  women  and 
colored  women  is  growing  rapidly  throughout  the  land. 


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WAR  WORK  AMONG  COLORED  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 

Owing  to  war  conditions  the  work  with  colored  women 
is  being  greatly  extended  and  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
of  the  five-million-dollar  budget  of  the  National  War  Work 
Council  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  is 
devoted  exclusively  to  this  work.  This  money  is  being  used 
to  provide  the  staffs  for  Hostess  Houses,  which  accommodate 
the  families  of  colored  troops;  for  emergency  housing  for 
colored  girls  in  war  industrial  centers  where  there  is  no 
local  Y.  W.  C.  A.;  to  furnish  field  workers  for  investigation, 
and  leaders  of  the  best  type  among  colored  women.  To  en- 
courage women  to  show  what  they  can  do  in  war  work  in 
filling  the  hundreds  of  industrial  positions  now  at  their  dis- 
posal. 

There  are  Colored  Hostess  Houses  at  Canp  Upton,  and  at 
Camp  Dix.  Others  are  being  erected  at  Camps  Jackson, 
Dodge,  Sherman,  Gordon,  Funston,  Grant  and  Meade.  The 
Camp  Upton  Hostess  House  is  the  training  center  for  workers 
who  will  be  sent  to  the  other  camps  as  soon  as  houses  are 
ready.  All  winter  barracks  were  used  at  Camp  Upton,  but 
now  the  new  house  is  being  used  and  a most  enjoyable  and 
successful  formal  opening  was  held  on  April  twentieth. 

Great  stress  is  being  laid  on  social  morality  talks,  and 
through  these  talks  thousands  of  girls  are  being  reached  in 
every  section  of  the  country.  The  War  Work  Council  aims 
to  do  everything  for  the  colored  girls  that  is  being  done  for 
the  white  girls.  Equalhy  of  opportunity  and  mutual  under- 
standing are  the  two  essentials  in  the  colored  girl's  develop- 
ment and  in  her  freedom  to  make  the  best  contribution  to 
the  community.  The  equality  of  opportunity  has  come  now 
with  the  war,  with  the  scarcity  of  men  and  with  the  decrease 
in  immigration;  and  the  mutual  understanding  is  now  rapidly 
increasing. 

Houston,  Texas. 

Besides  Patriotic  Service  Leagues  and  classes  in  food 
demonstration,  table  service  and  wartime  cookery,  there  is 
a Rainbow  Club,  French  class,  library  classes,  a class  in 
stenography  and  a Tennis  Club.  On  Sundays  the  doors  of 
the  center  are  opened  for  a cozy  “Quiet  Hour.” 

Columbia,  South  Carolina. 

Activities  are  being  carried  on  through  nine  clubs  which 
have  been  organized  and  which  have  an  enrolment  of  one 
hundred  and  ninety-five  girls. 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Washington  presents  a unique  situation  among  all  the  cities. 
It  is  the  capital  and  therefore  the  center  of  all  war  activity. 
The  proximity  of  Camp  Meade  brings  its  own  problems.  The 
War  Work  Council  is  planning  to  demonstrate  to  the  country 

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an  adequate  work  for  girls.  Two  of  the  chief  problems  are 
adequate  housing  and  recreational  facilities. 

Little  Rock,  Arkansas. 

The  colored  people  themselves  have  made  a start  to  raise 
money  to  carry  on  the  work.  In  a recent  campaign  their  aim 
was  to  raise  two  thousand  dollars,  but  they  went  “over  the 
top”  by  six  hundred  dollars.  Thirty-eight  organized  Patriotic 
Service  Clubs  among  school  girls  and  seven  among  employed 
girls  have  a total  membership  of  nine  hundred. 

Richmond,  Virginia. 

Within  the  last  two  months  eleven  clubs  with  a membership 
of  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  girls  have  been  actively 
engaged.  The  people  of  Richmond  have  shown  an  especial 
interest  in  the  social  morality  lectures.  Several  of  these 
lectures  have  been  given  at  the  mothers’  meetings,  where 
there  was  an  average  attendance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty. 
Charlotte,  North  Carolina. 

The  work  of  the  branch  Association  in  this  city  has  been 
extended  to  reach  a greater  number  of  girls. 

Atlanta,  Georgia. 

We  are  facing  an  acute  situation  at  Atlanta  and  two  work- 
ers are  already  on  the  field  to  meet  it.  Within  the  last  two 
months  eighteen  Patriotic  Service  Leagues  have  been  organ- 
ized with  a membership  of  four  hundred  and  seventy-three. 
Camp  Dix  Vicinity. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  the  work  that  we 
are  taking  up  at  this  time  is  community  work  in  Burlington 
County,  in  which  Camp  Dix  is  situated.  A worker  is  already 
there  and  will  probably  organize  county  work. 

Louisville,  Kentucky. 

There  are  already  two  thousand  girls  employed  in  different 
factories  there.  The  work  for  these  girls  includes  provision 
for  recreation,  housing  and  protection. 

Petersburg,  Virginia. 

That  the  girls  of  Petersburg  appreciate  their  recreational 
center  is  shown  by  the  report  of  the  worker  that  there  has 
been  an  attendance  of  six  hundred  and  five  girls. 

Greater  New  York. 

We  think  of  Greater  New  York  as  a big  bustling  city,  but 
here  too  the  girls  have  felt  the  call  for  service  and  are  in 
accord  with  the  highest  and  noblest  ideals  of  these  thrilling 
times.  This  has  been  demonstrated  by  the  eager  volunteer 
service  on  the  part  of  college  and  training  school  girls  in 
both  Brooklyn  and  Harlem.  These  girls  will  soon  have  an 
opportunity  to  render  valuable  service  in  the  recreation  cen- 
ters to  be  opened  by  July  first. 


8 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  THE  ORGANIZA- 
TION AND  EXTENSION  OF  REGULAR  WORK. 

One  hundred  and  forty-five  (145)  workers  have  been  sent 
out  to  eighty-three  (83)  centers  during  the  past  year.  As 
the  summer  comes  on,  there  is  an  increasing  demand  for 
recreation  leaders,  particularly  for  the  beaches  and  summer 
resorts  that  are  near  camps.  This  means  not  only  workers, 
but  also  renting  and  equipping  the  centers  where  the  work 
can  be  done.  The  most  outstanding  piece  of  work  begun  by 
this  committee  during  the  past  month  is  the  building  of  a 
club  house  for  the  girls  working  on  the  Amusement  Zone 
outside  Camp  Lewis.  This  work  is  very  like  that  done  by 
the  Association  on  the  Zone  at  the  Panama  Pacific  Exposi- 
tion. 


LETTER  FROM  GENERAL  GREEN  TO  MISS  CLARK 

Camp  Lewis  Headquarters  91st  Division 

American  Lake,  Washington 

June  10,  1918 

Miss  Constance  Clark,  Superintendent 
YWCA  Hostess  House,  Camp  Lewis,  Wash. 

My  dear  Miss  Clark: 

Permit  me  to  confirm  in  writing  what  I have 
already  told  you  in  personal  conversation,  that  I do 
most  heartily  approve  the  proposition  to  establish  a 
YWCA  Hostess  House  in  the  extra-cantonment  amusement 
zone  known  as  "Greene  Park." 

In  my  opinion  there  is  a large  field  for 
useful  work  there  by  your  organization  among  the 
considerable  number  of  young  women  who  will  be 
regularly  employed  by  the  several  concessionaires, 
as  well  as  among  the  transient  visitors. 

I am  so  impressed  with  the  great  work  of  the 
Camp  Hostess  House  under  your  able  management  that 
unqualifiedly  recommend  its  extension  to  a branch 
house  at  Greene  Park  under  the  same  management. 

I know  this  will  add  very  much  to  your  labors,  but 
I am  satisfied  that  with  a reasonable  addition  to 
your  efficient,  loyal  and  zealous  corps  of  assistants, 
you  will  accomplish  it  with  credit  to  yourselves  and 
with  profit  to  those  who  will  come  under  your  care. 

This  letter  is  written  primarily  for  your  own 
information^  but  secondarily  for  the  enlightenment 
of  any  "Whom  it  may  concern"  and  to  accomplish  the 
latter  object  you  are  authorized  to  make  such  use  of 
it  as  you  choose. 


9 


My  dear  lady,  I don't  suppose  I could  ever 
make  you  or  any  one  else  understand  how  much  of  care 
and  responsibility  in  the  looking  after  the 
thousands  of  visiting  relatives  of  the  men  of  this 
command  your  wonderful  Hostess  House  has  relieved  me 
of;  but  I take  this  occasion  to  assure  you  that  the 
amount  is  very  great,  that  I appreciate  very  much  the 
work  along  those  lines  of  the  YWCA,  of  yourself,  and 
all  of  your  assistants,  and  that  I am  very  grateful. 

Yours  very  truly. 


HAG:E 


(Signed)  H.  A.  GREEN 

Major  General,  N.A. 
Commanding 


HOUSING  COMMITTEE 

The  Housing  Committee  is  glad  to  report  that  the  house 
at  Ayer,  Mass.,  is  open,  and  in  spite  of  the  many  difficulties 
in  getting  labor  and  materials,  the  Charleston  building  is 
coming  on  rapidly.  Beginning  the  first  of  July,  the  Housing 
Committee  has  taken  the  building  of  the  Confederate  College 
in  Charleston  to  house  the  girls,  while  the  building  at  the 
navy  yard  is  being  completed. 

By  the  first  of  July,  or  very  soon  after,  the  Housing  Com- 
mittee hopes  that  the  two  vacation  houses  at  Washington  will 
be  open.  These  houses,  which  are  to  be  managed  by  the  local 
Washington  Committee  can  take  care  of  about  four  hundred 
girls  at  one  time.  Each  house  is  about  forty-five  minutes' 
trolley  ride  from  the  center  of  the  city. 


NOTES  ON  WORK  OF  WAR  WORK  COUNCIL  FOR 
FOREIGN  WOMEN. 

This  is  the  only  undertaking  on  a national  plan  which  is 
training  and  employing  women  to  make  a business  of  work- 
ing for  the  education  of  foreign-born  women  into  American 
life. 

To  date  there  are  ninteen  important  cities  with  International 
Institute  Information  Bureaus  and  staffs  of  American  and 
foreign  language  workers  employed  and  giving  all  their  time 
to  social  service  work  for  foreigners , which  is  the  key  and  the 
basis  of  all  Americanization  work.  There  are  six  new  ones 
beginning  work  this  month.  There  are  twenty-four  trained 
women  employed  on  the  national  and  district  field  staff. 
There  are  a total  to  date  (June  fifteenth)  of  one  hundred  and 
five  trained  women  on  the  Americanization  job.  No  other 
agency  of  any  kind  has  so  many  doing  this  kind  of  work. 

The  National  Americanization  Committee  has  no  branches. 
It  works  from  one  office  in  New  York  City.  Its  written  pro- 

10 


grams,  its  publicity  goes  all  over  the  country.  Its  purpose 
is  to  rouse  Americans  to  go  to  work.  It  occasionally  sends 
out  speakers  but  has  too  limited  a staff  to  do  so  regularly.  It 
does  not  train  workers,  it  does  not  supply  workers.  It  stirs 
up  Chambers  of  Commerce  to  organize  Americanization 
Committees  but  it  does  not  organize  or  direct  what  shall  be 
done. 

We  are  frequently  called  on  to  organize  the  work  after 
an  Americanization  Committee  has  agitated. 

Cleveland  has  the  strongest  Mayor’s  Americanization  Com- 
mittee in  the  country.  The  executive  of  the  International 
Institute  is  one  of  the  officers  of  it.  All  the  work  for  women 
is  done  by  the  International  Institute  foreign-language  work- 
ers. The  national  secretary  of  Immigration  and  Foreign  Com- 
mittee work  of  the  National  Board  was  called  in  to  advise 
in  organization  and  plans  of  program  before  it  was  started. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  works  only  for  men. 

The  D.  A.  R.s  through  state  committees,  put  out  educa- 
tional material  but  do  not  themselves  enter  into  the  realms 
of  employed  social  work. 

Polish  Grey  Samaritans  have  set  up  groups  in  eight  places 
to  date. 

Suffrage  state  committees  have  started  campaigns  to  educate 
foreign  women.  They  ask  agencies  at  work  in  the  com- 
munities to  carry  out  their  programs.  International  Institutes 
in  New  York  and  Syracuse  and  Los  Angeles  have  been  asked 
to  take  charge  of  all  citizenship  work  for  non-English 
speaking  women.  Since  steady  educational  work  for  citizen- 
ship is  already  a part  of  program  of  Institute  work,  they 
take  it  over. 

The  best  state  work  in  the  country  is  that  of  the  California 
Commission  on  Immigration  and  Housing.  In  their  two 
recent  reports  on  “Teaching  English”  and  “Americanization  of 
Foreign  Women,”  they  mention  the  work  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
and  at  one  point  say  “too  much  praise  cannot  be  given  for 
the  splendid  practical  work  of  this  organization  which  has 
workers  who  speak  the  foreign  languages  of  the  communities.” 

The  new  Immigration  Bureau  of  Massachusetts  is  the  only 
other  state  enterprise  that  has  a program  approaching  the 
California  program.  This  bureau  asked  the  National  Board  to 
find,  train  and  support  for  them  a secretary  to  organize  state 
work  for  women.  We  are  giving  this  secretary  two  months’ 
training,  in  which  time  she  is  visiting  and  observing  the 
work  of  agencies  which  approach  Americanization  from  the 
idea  of  service,  education  and  fair-play  for  immigrants.  She 
is  in  California  now  and  will  visit  the  School  of  Opportunity, 
Denver;  Immigrants’  Protective  League,  Chicago;  Americani- 
zation Committee,  Cleveland;  Board  of  Education,  Cincinnati, 
and  International  Institutes  in  several  places,  such  as  Pitts- 
burgh, Akron  and  New  York. 


It 


In  fifteen  places  Red  Cross  work  for  foreigners  is  done  by 
International  Institute  workers. 

Akron  has  been  asked  to  take  complete  charge  of  new 
“Communication  Service”  between  countries. 

When  the  S.S.  “Carolina”  was  torpedoed,  the  International 
Institute  of  Brooklyn  did  all  the  translation  for  Spanish 
speaking  passengers. 

♦Madame  Batchkorova’s  little  sister  has  been  placed  in  our 
hands  by  the  Russian  Embassy.  She  will  stay  at  International 
Institute  House  in  New  York  until  she  learns  English,  and 
then  will  be  placed  at  school  under  our  care. 

The  International  Information  and  Service  Bureau  is  the 
only  foreign  language  press  service,  non-commercial,  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  the  only  educational  press  service  of  any 
kind  of  writers  who  understand  our  foreign  speaking  people 
writing  for  foreign  women.  Our  staff  is  constantly  trans- 
lating pertinent  facts  in  terms  that  can  be  grasped  by  the  for- 
eign speaking  women  such  as: 

Soldiers  mail;  Money  for  War  Prisoners;  Baby  Saving 
Campaign;  Status  of  certain  groups  of  enemy  aliens  as  the 
Poles  from  Prussia  and  Austria-Hungary. 

This  work  is  but  six  months  old  and  has  only  just  begun 
to  touch  its  field  of  service. 


SOCIAL  MORALITY  SECTION 

The  staff  of  the  Social  Morality  Department  has  been  in- 
creased from  four  to  forty-five.  Seventy-five  lecturers  are 
available.  Over  thirteen  hundred  lectures  have  been  given 
reaching  over  two  hundred  thousand  people.  Every  camp 
and  cantonment  center  has  been  touched.  Yet  the  work  has 
just  begun. 

Lectures  are  given  to  groups  of  mothers,  teachers,  high 
school  girls  and  business  women.  Special  attention  is  being 
paid  to  industrial  centers.  In  Paterson,  where  the  work  has 
just  begun,  forty-five  factories  were  opened  the  first  week 
to  the  five  doctors  who  went  there  to  lecture. 

At  the  conference  in  New  York  City  last  week  over  sixty 
leading  physicians  came  together  to  work  in  co-operation 
with  the  War  Department  representatives  on  a standardized 
program. 

The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Lecture  Bureau  has  become  the  official 
bureau  for  the  Women’s  Divison  of  the  Social  Hygiene  Sec- 
tion of  the  Commission  on  Training  Camp  Activities  of  the 
War  Department,  of  which  Dr.  Katherine  B.  Davis  is  the  head. 

We  co-operate  locally  with  Community  Committees  which 
include  Catholics  and  Jews,  as  well  as  all  of  the  Protestant 
denominations,  industrial  workers,  and  other  groups. 

* Madame  Batchkorova  was  the  leader  of  the  famous  Russian 
women’s  “Legion  of  Death.” 


12 


REPORT  OF  PUBLICITY  COMMITTEE. 

The  Publicity  Committee  was  organized  a year  ago  under 
the  direction  of  Mrs.  William  Adams  Brown.  It  had  then 
one  secretary  and  one  stenographer.  Today  there  are  four- 
teen secretaries  in  the  United  States  and  two  in  France  and 
thirteen  stenographers  and  clerical  workers. 

We  regret  that  because  of  her  heavy  duties  as  chairman 
of  finance,  Mrs.  Brown  has  felt  obliged  to  resign  the  chair- 
manship. Mrs.  Lewis  H.  Lapham  has  been  elected  in  her 
stead. 

There  have  been  thirty-three  issues  of  the  War  Work 
Bulletin,  the  mailing  list  having  increased  from  1,000  in 
October  to  75,000  in  June.  The  total  number  of  Bulletins 
printed  to  date  is  857,800. 

905,325  leaflets,  cards  and  dodgers,  largely  educational,  have 
been  and  are  being  distributed. 

534,000  sheets  of  stationery  have  been  furnished  to  Hostess 
Houses  for  the  free  use  of  guests. 

129,500  posters  including  Hotel  Petrograd,  Summer  Confer- 
ence, General  Hostess  House,  New  York  City  Hostess  House, 
the  Briggs  Cartoon,  and  Land  Service  posters  have  been 
printed  and  are  being  distributed. 

The  Newspaper  Section  of  the  Publicity  Committee  is  serv- 
ing regularly  1,400  papers.  This  covers  every  state,  every 
city  of  any  size  and  with  the  continued  enlargement  of  the 
list,  is  rapidly  coming  to  mean  that  every  county  will  be 
adequately  covered. 

The  total  circulation  of  the  1,400  papers,  is  38,000,000  readers. 
268  stories  have  been  written  and  4,989  copies  of  these  stories 
sent  out. 

In  the  last  six  weeks  1,035  county  papers  have  had  stories. 

Three  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty  photographs  have 
been  received;  1,365  photographs  have  been  sent  out. 

Forty-two  showings  of  lantern  slides  have  been  made  and 
seven  fields  provided  with  sets  of  war  work  slides. 

A clipping  bureau  service  has  shown  that  15,367  articles 
have  been  printed. 

Two  hundred  special  articles  for  War  Chests  and  six 
broadsides  of  stories  of  our  work  are  issued. 

This  report  covers  the  time  between  January  twenty-fifth 
and  June  fifteenth  only. 

The  War  Work  Council  has  leaped  into  the  magazine  world. 
Last  year  the  Association  had  only  one  feature  story  in  a 
popular  magazine.  Writers  were  put  to  work.  By  January 
results  began  to  show.  In  the  first  five  months  of  this  year 
there  have  appeared  in  general  magazines,  women's  publica- 
tions and  the  religious  press  forty-four  leading  articles.  Ten 
more  are  in  type  in  editor's  offices.  Others  are  definitely 
ordered. 


13 


Two  magazine  writers  are  now  employed,  working  continu- 
ously, and  their  stories  are  snapped  up  by  editors  as  fast  as 
they  can  produce  them.  There  is  no  waste  product  from 
this  section. 

Material  is  beginning  to  come  in  from  France  and  is  being 
distributed  through  magazines  and  newspaper  directors. 

A recent  canvass  of  the  editorial  staff  reveals  individual 
editorial  experience  ranging  from  one  and  a half  years  to 
twenty-two  years  and  a collective  experience  of  sixty-two 
years  of  magazines  and  newspaper  writing,  all  of  which  is  at 
the  service  of  the  War  Work  Council. 

The  Research  Section  of  Publicity  has  now  four  secretaries 
working  out  accurate  facts  along  general,  industrial,  foreign 
and  financial  lines. 

The  publicity  department  has  not  reached  its  full  efficiency 
but  it  has  promise  of  great  things  for  the  future. 

REPORT  OF  HOSTESS  HOUSE  COMMITTEE 

When  the  War  Department  planned  the  great  training 
camps  it  may  not  have  remembered  the  women  of  the  country 
in  the  stress  of  making  the  new  army  of  men;  or  it  may  have 
thought  that  if  the  Government  said,  “Let  there  be  no  women 
in  connection  with  the  camps”  that  there  would  be  none. 

But  every  woman  knows  that,  as  long  as  there  is  a train  or 
a trolley  or  a motor  car  to  carry  them,  where  the  men  are, 
there  the  women  will  follow.  They  must  see  where  their  sons 
are  living;  if  the  boys  are  ill  they  must  get  to  them,  and  if 
they  are  leaving  for  overseas  they  must  say  goodbye  to  them. 

There  was  no  thought  of  any  need  of  work  inside  the 
camp,  and  no  provisions  in  the  program  or  in  the  budget  had 
been  made  to  do  any  such  work;  but,  no  sooner  had  the 
first  Officers’  Training  Camp  been  opened  at  the  Plattsburg 
Barracks  than  a new  and  serious  problem  presented  itself. 

And  so  when  the  Plattsburg  Officers’  Training  Camp  opened, 
the  mothers  and  sisters  and  wives  and  sweethearts  arrived  by 
tens  and  hundreds  and  thousands  and  there  was  no  spot 
where  they  could  meet  their  boys  but  the  dusty  road  which 
ran  through  the  Post. 

The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  was  already  at  work  in  Plattsburg  and 
when  the  situation  became  suddenly  acute  the  Commanding 
Officer  turned  to  the  Association  for  assistance.  The  Associa- 
tion had  had  some  practical  experience  in  handling  and 
feeding  large  crowds,  for  it  had  organized  and  run  a Hostess 
House  and  Cafeteria  at  the  San  Francisco  Exposition  for  the 
use  of  all  women  employed  on  the  fair  grounds  and  the 
women  visitors  to  the  fair,  and  more  recently  had  managed 
the  cafeteria  in  connection  with  the  Billy  Sunday  Tabernacle 
in  New  York  where  thousands  of  women  were  fed  daily. 

14 


A generous  gift  from  one  of  the  members  of  the  War 
Council  provided  funds  for  the  project  and  two  weeks  from 
the  day  that  Colonel  Wolff  staked  out  the  first  modest  Host- 
ess House,  the  hostesses  were  serving  chocolate  cake  baked 
in  the  kitchen  across  the  cafeteria  counter,  and  the  situation 
as  it  appeared  on  the  border  two  years  before  became  sudden- 
ly reversed,  for  it  was  no  longer  the  girl  who  played  hostess 
to  the  soldier  but  the  soldier  who  became  the  host  of  his 
mother,  wife  or  sweetheart. 

The  Hostess  House  has  come  to  be  the  only  place  in  the 
camp  where  the  women  can  meet  the  men  they  come  to  see, 
where  the  women  can  find  rest  and  refreshment  while  waiting 
for  the  soldier  to  be  “off  duty,”  where  the  too  enthusiastic 
girl  finds  a balance  and  protection,  where  the  anxious  mother 
is  given  comfort  and  encouragement,  and,  not  least,  where 
the  soldier  himself  can  find  a comfortable  chair  by  the  fire,  a 
quiet  nook  to  read  or  write,  a woman’s  welcome  from  the 
Hostesses  when  he  has  no  guest  of  his  own,  a dainty  supple- 
ment to  his  heavy  ration  and  a touch  of  home  within  the  camp. 

This  is  what  the  Hostess  House  stands  for,  the  bit  of  home, 
and  every  boy  finds  a different  word  to  express  his  apprecia- 
tion of  the  service  it  renders.  “The  only  place  with  a chair 
with  a cushion,”  the  “place  where  the  china  will  break;”  “I 
wouldn’t  let  my  mother  or  sister  come  to  camp  but  now  the 
Hostess  House  is  here  I’ve  told  them  to  come  right  away.” 
“The  Hostesses  are  mother  and  sister  and  sweetheart  all 
rolled  into  one,  and  they’re  always  on  the  job.”  And  so  on 
and  so  on. 

The  house  is  an  information  bureau  where  the  Hostesses 
must  know  the  answers  to  the  most  varied  and  surprising 
number  of  questions: 

“Can  you  find  my  son,  I don't  know  his  organization." 

“Do  you  keep  marriage  licenses?" 

“Where  can  I get  rooms  for  my  wife?" 

“Can  you  sew  on  buttons?" 

“How  do  I get  my  allotment?" 

“Why  isn’t  my  husband  exempt?" 

“What  time  do  the  trains  go?" 

“Can  you  make  my  sweater  go  over  my  head?" 

The  Hostess  House  has  been  accepted  as  part  of  camp 
life,  as  essential  to  the  comfort  and  welfare  of  the  men  as 
any  of  the  organizations  primarily  for  their  use  only. 

There  has  never  been  a time  in  the  history  of  the  world 
when  such  great  bodies  of  men  have  been  gathered  together 
for  intensive  military  training  in  a country  where  there  was 
no  war . In  the  Civil  War  the  untrained  troops  were  marched 
from  the  cities  to  the  battle  front  to  be  trained  in  action. 
Today  in  England  many  of  the  training  camps  are  within 
sound  of  the  great  guns,  and  in  France  the  men  are  holding 
the  line  but  a few  miles  from  where  in  the  schools  and  camps 
our  men  are  being  drilled  and  taught.  But  here  there  is  no 
sight  or  sound  of  war  and  our  men  are  living  in  abnormal 

15 


3 0112  073184548 


conditions  in  seemingly  natural  and  normal  surroundings. 
Surely  everything  that  can  be  done  to  encourage  their  spirit,  to 
make  them  feel  that  their  women  are  cared  for  and  protected, 
to  lighten  the  staleness  of  too  continuous  dwelling  on  one 
subject,  and  above  all  keep  them  in  as  close  touch  with  nat- 
ural human  life  as  long  as  and  wisely  as  is  possible,  must 
be  a true  and  worthy  service  that  can  be  rendered  to  our 
splendid  self-sacrificing  men. 


STATISTICAL  SUMMARY  OF  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
SPECIAL  WAR  WORK. 

June  18,  1918. 

Workers 


8 Emergency  housing  workers. 

54  Headquarters  War  Work  Council  special  workers. 
16  Supervisory  workers. 

196  Hostess  House  staff  (including  9 colored). 

160  Club  Workers  (including  18  colored). 

24  Foreign  Community  workers. 

458  Total. 


Centers 


83  Club  Centers — with  several  more  authorized  to  which 
workers  have  not  been  sent. 

54  Hostess  Houses  (including  three  colored  houses  and  four 
“Metropolitan”  houses  or  rooms — and  Plattsburg  which 
is  to  be  opened  only  for  one  month.) 

29  Houses  authorized — or  under  construction — including  eight 
colored  and  second  house  at  Spartanburg  and  a new 
house  at  Fort  Sill,  Oklahoma.  Also  six  of  the  requests 
for  Hostess  Houses  which  will  probably  be  granted. 

6 Requests  received  will  probably  be  granted  for  additional 
Hostess  Houses  (not  listed  above). 


Respectfully  submitted, 


